Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Modi Colony

Like China, India has changed.

However in China, the old has been bulldozed, making way for the new.

In India, the new is built in rings around the old. Pune's shopping malls and hi-tech campuses stretch outward for miles, but in the center of the city lies the apartment complex that my father lived in over 70 years ago, unchanged.

As we walked around, my aunt ran into many people she has known since childhood, and everyone was happy to greet her (and be introduced to the kin of her brother, whom they of course also knew).

I've mentioned before, travelling to India after 16 years away is like time travel to the future. However, going back to my father's childhood home was the opposite.... time travel back to the unchanged past.

It is amazing, my *own* childhood home was torn down years ago. Most of the places I remember from childhood have been drastically altered. But here in the center of India is a small community that remains the same.

Here is my father greeting neighbors on our last trip to India in 1996.